Mine
Mines are a type of overland map location and the setting for high-level quests. Overview Normally, when the party visits a Mine, there will be Ingredients for sale but nothing else of interest. However, at discrete calendar intervals the game will run a check and assign at least one Mine, somewhere in the empire, to experience a supernatural invasion of some sort. These problems last for one year; then, a new location is chosen. Mining has become a major element of Germany's economy at this time, employing many people and supplying vital resources to the cities in charge of them. The party can visit and recapture the troubled mine for a huge payout in Fame and possible increment to Virt. *The fame reward is 42 / 64 / 96 as per the difficulty setting. *For unknown reasons the fame can be a lesser multiple, 16 / 25 / 37. *The grateful miners reward the party with around ten samples of each of ten different mineral components, and there is also loot to be had from the creatures that took over the mine. There are three main scenarios for the mines. Once all three quests have been completed at least once, problems at the mines will cease entirely. Challenges The level of combat in a Mine seldom exceeds that found at an ordinary Castle; however, overcoming the obstacles and succeeding in the mission requires a highly-skilled party. The party needs Per to detect the hidden doors and traps that have been laid throughout the mine during the conflict. Raise Per either with saintly aid or the Truesight potion. Without this attribute, characters should be prepared to sustain health and armor-quality damage as they explore. Artf and Lockpicks are needed to disarm traps on chests. Eater Water works on locked chests. The mines have many levels, and some area-transitions are sealed behind enchanted iron doors with puzzles. Turning the wrong knob or touching the wrong face will spring traps that can permanently lower a character's attributes, so be ready to think carefully in front of these doors. In each mine there will be one or more cutscene-driven "Dwarven pit traps" that cannot be detected until it is too late. Opportunities for quick escape may require certain assets: *'Agl' of one character *'Agl' of the party *Average Artf of the party *Stone-tar (an optimal choice) *Thunderbolt (which works but seriously injures the party) *Intervention from either Dismas, Gregory T, Peter, or Reinold (costing precious DF) Should these fail, a dwarf will eventually arrive and toss serious problems into the pit which can lead to death, such as poisonous adders, closing walls, flooding, quicklime, or molten lava. Dealing with this may demand: *Weapon skills, End, Str, Agl, Artf *'Chr + SpkC' for striking a truce with the dwarf *Eater Water *Firewall *St. Cecilia, Charity, Devota, Margaret, Lawrence, Pantaleon, or Polycarp Dark Gate Mine In this scenario the dwarves stumbled upon something very, very bad underground, and now both they and the miners are out of work. The exact type of threat, either a Hell gate, a fire gate, or a cursed sepulchre, determines the type of foes that will encountered in the lower levels of the mine. There are several puzzle-warded branch levels in this type of mine, and the last of which turns up a holy relic for the party. Shutting the gate requires either the average Str of the party, the Artf of a character, Transformation, Firewall, or prayers to the purifying Saints Boniface, Emydius, or Raphael. Failure to make the skill checks at the dark gate triggers more battles. A party with poor skills can still fight their way through wave-after-wave of creatures in hopes of eventually getting a lucky roll in the cutscenes. mDarkGateMine.png|Layout for the Dark Gate mine. qFireGate.gif|Fire gate Dwarf King Mine In this scenario, a dwarf and his minions have seized the mine. Dwarves can employ cunning magic; driving this king away will require finesse. The mine branches into two paths after the second level. One path leads to the dwarf, and the other path leads to his stash of metallurgic "crown jewels," objects which are worthless to the party but can be leveraged against him. Breaking open the dwarf's treasure chest can potentially be reliant on Quality of equipped weapons (not recommended because it damages them), Thunderbolt, Eater Water, Str, or Artf. The dwarf resides at the end of the other path, and without his treasure, he could still potentially be dealt-with via WBow, Agl, or the lucky Saints Gregory T or Jude. Every time the party fails the cutscene, the king summons waves of Giant Gnomes. An alternative is to bribe the king in the first encounter(s) with him. His price for this is 15 different kinds of potions. In this case he abandons his operation and merrily retreats to his lair to study the fruits of human science. A final alternative is to threaten and then accept a bribe from the king to abandon this quest. This secures for the party what may be the highest-quality armor piece in the game, a dwarf-forged breastplate of up to 50q. Accepting this treasure triggers failure of the quest and closure of the mine. mDwarfKingMine.png|Layout for the Dwarf King mine. Kobold Rebellion Mine In this scenario the kobolds and their dwarf masters are having an armed stand-off. The party must kill the leader of one of the races to settle the conflict decisively in the other's favor, who then allow the human miners to return to work. The third level down has two different ladders that lead to two different fourth levels. If the fourth level is fiery, the dwarves' golden doorway is at-hand, and passing through that constitutes a declaration of war on the dwarves. Likewise if the fourth level is watery, there will be a russet door to the kobolds' realm. There is a sublevel, a kind of semi-fifth level infested with hellhounds connecting these two areas, that the party can take if they decide to seek the doorway of the other race. Siding with the kobolds is slightly more lucrative, because the kobolds present the party with alchemy supplies (doubling up the reward from the miners), and there is some pretty good armor salvage from slain dwarves. There is no virtue gain or liability for choosing either side; the kobolds have clear grievances with the dwarves, but these dwarves have apparently been wronged by humans before. The Kobold King and some dwarf infantry throw potions. Besides the puzzle doors and pit traps found in any mine crisis, there are no tests of odd skills in this scenario— just combat. mKoboldRebelsMine.png|Layout for the Kobold Rebellion mine. Category:Locations Category:Quest-Related